The Favor of Him Who Dwelt in the Bush: From the Thorn of the Fall to the Glory of Union
When Moses blesses the tribe of Joseph, he says:"with the favor of him who dwelt in the burning bush" (Deuteronomy 33:16, NIV).
The bush is not a fruit-bearing tree, nor is it beautiful to look at. It is a wild thorn — useless, without shade, without fruit. Indeed, Scripture often uses thorns as a symbol of the fall and the curse:
"It will produce thorns and thistles for you" (Genesis 3:18, NIV) This is the image of humanity after the fall.
Isaiah paints the condition with stark clarity:
"From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with olive oil" (Isaiah 1:6, NIV)
An open wound, Corruption left untreated, A nature beyond healing.
And Paul confirms the same testimony:
"All have turned away, they have together become worthless" (Romans 3:12, NIV)
"death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses" (Romans 5:14, NIV)
Humanity became like the bush — fragile, combustible, subject to death, No glory in itself, No usefulness in its fallen nature.
The Favor of Him Who Dwelt in the Bush: The Father's Declaration, the Son's Incarnation, and the Spirit's Work
We are not speaking here of a general theophany, but of a specific divine act within the economy of the Trinity.
The Father: The Source of Favor and Sending
Scripture does not merely say "He who dwelt," but "the favor of Him who dwelt."
"Favor" here is an act of the Father's will — the fountainhead of the economy.
As Paul says:
"But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son" (Galatians 4:4, NIV)
The sending is the work of the Father.
The divine decision to draw near to the thorn is the Father's decision.
And as he also says:
"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him" (Colossians 1:19, NIV)
It was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness of deity to dwell in the body.
The favor originates in the Father's heart.
The Son: The One Who Dwelt and Became Flesh
He who appeared in the bush is the Word — the visible declaration of the Father.
John declares:
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:14, NIV)
The word "made his dwelling" (ἐσκήνωσεν) means "he pitched his tent" or "he dwelt."
As He dwelt in the bush, so He dwelt in our body.
And in his first epistle: "The life appeared" (1 John 1:2, NIV)
Eternal life did not remain distant; it entered our nature.
The bush was combustible,
yet the fire did not consume it.
The body was subject to corruption,
but by the Son's union with it, death was no longer its master.
St. Athanasius says in On the Incarnation of the Word:
"The Word, being united to the body, destroyed the corruption that was in it."
And he also says:
"Just as iron, when united with fire, becomes incandescent without being destroyed, so the body, being united with the Word, became a partaker of incorruptibility."
Healing did not come through external repair,
but through internal union.
The Holy Spirit: The Fire of Abiding Presence
But the economy does not stop at the historical incarnation.
The fire that appeared in the bush
is an image of the Holy Spirit's work.
The Spirit is the One who:
formed the Son's body in the Virgin's womb (Luke 1:35)
raised Him from the dead (Romans 8:11
and now dwells in believers.
"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?" (1 Corinthians 3:16, NIV)
It is the Holy Spirit who makes what was accomplished in the Son's body
become effective in us.
If the Son clothed Himself with our humanity,
the Spirit clothes us with the Son's life.
If the Father sent,
and the Son was united,
the Spirit gives us a share in this union.
The Father's Favor is Accomplished in the Son and Given to Us Through the Spirit
The favor of Him who dwelt in the bush is not merely a memory,
but a revelation of the mystery of our salvation.
The Father was pleased to send.
The Son was pleased to become flesh.
The Spirit was pleased to dwell.
The bush did not change in its nature,
but it was glorified by the indwelling.
"Having taken a body from our race, He offered it to death on behalf of all, so that He might abolish death in the body." — Athanasius the Apostolic
And he also says:
"Just as straw, when it comes near fire, does not remain as it was but is transformed by the nature of the fire, so the body that was united to the Word became incorruptible."
Such are we.
Our value does not come from our perfection,
but from the fact that the Father loved,
and the Son united,
and the Spirit dwells.
The summit of favor is to see our humanity
lifted up in the Son before the Father,
and enlivened in us by the power of the Spirit.
Here the reign of death is broken.
Here the open wound is bound up.
Here the thorn is transformed into a place of glorious fire.
God's Favor and the Secret of Our Worth
Here we understand "the favor of Him who dwelt in the bush."
The favor of the Trinity does not arise from the goodness of the thorn,
but from His decision to dwell in it.
Our worth is not founded on our own purity,
but on the fact that the Son of God was pleased to unite Himself with our nature.
The earthly one is called to become heavenly.
The weak one has become a place of presence.
The mortal one has become a temple of life.
The summit of favor is not to convince ourselves of our own worth,
but to see our humanity lifted up in the person of the incarnate Son.
There alone the feeling of nothingness ends.
There alone Isaiah's wound is healed.
There alone the reign of death is broken.
The bush was not glorified because it became a cedar,
but because it became a dwelling place for the fire.
Thus, humanity is not glorified by changing its human essence,
but by the union of this essence with the eternal Son
through the work of the Holy Spirit
and the love of the Father.